Nigerian Navy Says Pirate Attacks Fall 68% From 2016

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo (Bloomberg) — The Nigerian navy said pirate attacks in the country’s territorial waters fell 68 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year.

“In the first half of 2016, 53 pirate attacks on shipping were recorded with 36 successful,” Suleman Dahun, the navy’s director of information, said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “In the corresponding period in 2017, only four successful attacks occurred out of a total of 17 attempted attacks.”

The drop in cases was the result of the navy’s “enhanced patrols” of the country’s Atlantic waters to deter pirates that made the area one of the most dangerous globally for shipping, according to the navy.